Former Los Alamos scientist sentenced in plot to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela

A former Los Alamos nuclear scientist caught in a sting operation was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to help Venezuela develop nuclear weapons in exchange for "money and power." He also advised dropping a bomb over NYC.

“I'm going to be the
boss with money and power," Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, a
naturalized US citizen from Argentina, is heard telling his wife
in a secret FBI recording released before the sentencing on
Wednesday.

Back in 2013, Mascheroni and his wife both pleaded guilty to
helping Venezuela develop nuclear potential after dealings with
an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative in Venezuela.
Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni has already been sentenced to a year
and a day in prison for conspiring with her husband.

Before Mascheroni himself was sentenced to five years in prison
and three years of supervised release on Wednesday, prosecutors
played audio and video clips in the courtroom, in which
Mascheroni was heard confessing to aiding the South American
country.

In one video from March 2008, Mascheroni told a US federal agent
that he would help Venezuela develop 40 nuclear weapons to be
completed in 10 years.

“Nobody in the United States will know that I am using my
brain helping the Venezuelan government,” Mascheroni said in
one recording, promising that Venezuela would become a nuclear
superpower.

Between March 2008 and October 2009, Mascheroni was in
communication with an undercover FBI agent, meeting him three
times during that time period. The nuclear physicist approached a
person he believed to be a Venezuelan representative after the US
rejected his theories that a hydrogen-fluoride laser could
produce nuclear energy.

“I’m not an American anymore. This is it,” the upset
scientist said in another recording, renouncing his allegiance to
the United States.

Shockingly enough, he also stated that could explode a bomb over
New York City to destroy its electrical system, claiming it would
not hurt anyone. This would allegedly prevent the United States
from invading oil-rich Venezuela.

While Washington never alleged that Venezuela sought US nuclear
secrets, federal prosecutor Fred Federici said Mascheroni refused
to admit he did anything wrong. “He was no true hero,”
Federici said. “He was simply a man who betrayed his
country.”

In his defense, the 79-year-old scientist said he was not
planning to harm anyone. “I was basically selling used
cars,” Mascheroni said. “What I was selling was
completely science fiction.”

In an interview with AP, Mascheroni denied the accusations and
said the US government is wrongly targeting him as a spy after
his ideas were rejected in the US and he tried to approach other
nations with his concepts of cheaper, cleaner nuclear power.